This weekend was predicted to be an overall dreary one.  It called for overcast skies and rain. Sunday was partly cloudy, but sometimes what you want just doesn’t appear. Most suggest that in certain conditions it’s best to turn over when you see those cloudy skies (with the exception of waterfall photography.) I was tired of that train of thought so I got off my bum and headed out for some fun. When is comes to white balance you need to shoot some samples and question what fits the situation best. The degree of an overcast sky and time of day can very greatly. Sometimes it’s a thin amount of cover, early morning sun with thick cover, or high noon and ‘no way that sun is making it through’ sort of cover. I have found through experience that in the wee hours of the morning on an overcast sky your looking at a shade setting. Thin clouds and a bright over all scene where you are pulling enough light to maintain good speeds I found the cloudy setting works best. If you are using the auto mode you will find they take on a very cool look. This could be very beneficial. When it comes to really cold months I love this result. Normally I may not go out in the overcast situations we are describing, but when water is frozen you don’t have to worry about that natural blue. Ice isn’t often blue unless your in glacier country. A big benefit.

Enough with the technical. Lets talk about the safety of your gear. With overcast skies, moisture is always a threat. You may be walking straight into your day with the rain coming down or the lingering disaster may be waiting for that opportune moment where you thought you were in the clear. The best thing is to have a rain coat for your lens. Typically some type of plastic sheath or cover for your lens and or body. They also help in dusty or sandy environments so they aren’t just for wet environments. I use the Tenba RC-24. It was the first one I purchased and have just stuck to it. (Sometimes an investment might cost a bit much and you have to take full advantage.) It works by means of Velcro. You attach some double sided Velcro to your lens hood and then line the outer edge on your lens hood. It has other Velcro on it for further security. You can remove the Velcro and use a product called ‘goo gone’ to remove any left over residue.  I don’t shoot through the clear back as it’s obnoxious and not really necessary with the D300 seals. One other ultra cheap option is the rainsleeve by op/tech. You get two covers for 7$ quite a deal. I ordered a pair myself and will be investigating them by Wednesday to report back to you I hope. Either way there are a bunch of options out there. I’d find a local photo store, or a place with a great return policy that will let you try certain products first.

So now that you are protected and aware of your WB it is time to get out and experiment:

Experimentation was a real theme for the day. I was shooting with everything in mind. This is an HDR (high dynamic range) five frame composite image designed to have a very persuasive feel. I used this trail (made from misuse of the trail system; I was at the trail head and did not take the path) to direct the eye and also when processing this image using the light to perform the same task.

My goal for the day was to try and capture the sense of fog I was witnessing. There was a huge thick wave of fog coming in off the water toward shore. It was the perfect opportunity. This HDR image above took the fog right out of the image and wasn’t cutting it. As I was taking the (proper) trail down to the beach I caught a glimpse of this fisherman who wandered out to see what he could catch. This is one of many frames I fired off. The great thing about the fog is that it skaters light everywhere. So your shutter speeds can go at higher speeds then you would imagine. My goal was to capture the peak of action here. I have a bunch of him fiddling with his fishing pole and checking his gear, but nothing tells the story as well as you see here. (Processed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro)

When I reached the beach I was greeted by this awesome scene. There were at least a hundred brant taking advantage of low tide in search of some food. The goal was to get close enough to have a sharp focus point and farther enough  away to still have the fog effect the landscape (shot with the Nikon 80-400mm; telephotos can do landscapes too ).

I wanted to share this one as a demonstration of the importance of foreground and more importantly to show a story telling element. Can you tell what that element is? I used the highlights to throw you to it. These two poor brant took a smack by mother nature. You can see them bracing for the wave as it comes their way.

I didn’t know what spooked them. I self checked myself mentally wondering what it is I said, or how I smelled? Eight seconds after this scene fully unfolded I turned my head backward. Turned out the fisherman had enough and seeing him cross the spartina was enough to make them disappear off into the abyss. You may notice that the black point of the images are a bit different or the WB a tad shifted. Light is constantly changing in the scene of course, but this was more a post processing issue. When I got back to the computer I wanted to make sure that the black points were equal. Problem is that in Nikon Capture NX2 as far as I can tell you can’t batch process a black point. A slight shift in the scene and the point will hit a totally different location. So some may appear a tad more saturated and contrasty. A good point to keep in mind with sharpness/contrast/saturation in relation to setting your black point or underexposing for the scene.

On the way out this scene struck me. It had a dreary and dark appeal to it. It is and HDR composite, but I feel it was a great representation of what I saw, not an illustration of what I may have wanted it to look like.

You can see the effect of a cloudy sky on the water. Even with a cloudy white balance preset it is hard to recover the damage done by the clouds. This slick bastard, I mean great egret is a tough one to place. Background is the part that he loves to make difficult for me. This was done on purpose however for two reasons. One to show you how without watching your background a good image can go bad. When an object in the background can decapitate your subject, it isn’t very aesthetically pleasing. The second reason is just to show how incredibly long his neck is! I thought it was a great angle to share with you all. If you ever get the chance to watch them hunt for fish take the time to observe. I was amazed at how carefully they approach. More so how I thought he was watching me. His head was sideways and not in a position to scan the water, but in a split second he shot is long neck downward and caught a fish in the complete opposite direction. Just an astonishing experience.

An image that has a classic look to it. After an experience at the Gateway National Seashore I stopped by the harbor to take in the natural events for the day.  So much for not being able to make much on a cloudy day, ey?
(This image was processed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro.)